Editor's note: This version clarifies the relationship among those in a photo showing multiple generations of the same family.

Just down the road from East Lyme High School, the town senior center has its own yearbook-like spreads of photos of smiling seniors along its walls.

Instead of 18-year-olds, however, these displays feature town residents age 90 and older, and 33 were honored Friday during the center's annual Celebrate 90+ Tea Party.

Beatrice O'Connell, one of the centenarians in attendance and a New York native, said she moved to East Lyme in 2007 and has been attending the tea party for five or six years.

"I enjoy everything where there's people," she said.

The activity room at the senior center was full with about 100 attendees, but the guests of honor were easy to spot with boutonnieres provided by Crescent Point, which cosponsored the 11th annual event with the senior center and Bridebrook Health and Rehab Center.

Senior center Director Cathy Wilson said she encountered the idea while researching new programs for the center, and the event has grown so much over the years that it had to be moved into the activity room to make space for all the attendees.

"It's a pretty remarkable achievement," she said. "It's funny if you ever think about what they lived through, the changes in our country in the past 90 years is mindboggling."

Frank Perry Jr., who volunteers at Bridebrook and leads a veterans group there, came to the tea party with his father, Frank, and uncle Art.

He said his father, now 97, was a machine gunner on a patrol torpedo boat in the Pacific during World War II, and the boat was so small that everyone had to know each other's jobs.

Similarly, Art, now 98, served in Italy in the Army Air Corps, which was the precursor to the Air Force.

O'Connell also remembered the war, including the return of military planes from the Pacific and the parade held in New York City for General Douglas MacArthur, who she referred to as the "CEO of the Pacific."

She noted that warfare then was much different than it is now, but it was technology that brought the biggest changes.

"I had heard about things being done like the computer and all that, but I couldn't imagine that it really would happen in my time," she said. "Many years ago at one of the fairs, they showed a little thing like an aspirin and said something will work in something that small, and it has."

This year's event featured youth singers from April's Angels, as well as a visit from state Sen. Paul Formica.

But it almost didn't happen.

Dianne Caristo Gaynor, who served as administrator at Bridebrook for 17 years, retired in December to spend more time with her family, jumped right back in to volunteer when she found out that no one at the center had stepped up to help coordinate the event.

A staffer said "'I don't know if we're going to have it,' and I said 'Yes, we are,'" she said with a laugh. "It gives us the opportunity to honor residents who have lived here and given so much to the town."

a.hutchinson@theday.com